I2 4 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



that opinion may have been misled by another appellation, often 

 Tjiven to the (Enas, which is that of stock-dove. 



Unless the stock- dove in the winter varies greatly in manners 

 from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be 

 domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the 

 latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods \ but 

 the former as long as it stays with us, from November perhaps to 

 February, lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, Palumbus 



STOCK-DOVE. 



torquatus ; frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly by 

 mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be 

 known in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt would be 

 settled with me at once, provided they construct their nests on 

 trees, like the ring-dove, as I much suspect they do. 



You received, you say, last spring a stock-dove from Sussex ; 

 and are informed that they sometimes breed in that county. But 

 why did not your correspondent determine the place of its nidifi- 

 cation, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not an adroit 



